Lafayette College football team follows in historic footsteps with win at William & Mary

Express-Times File PhotoLafayette College head football coach Frank Tavani made sure his team knew about their college's namesake's success in Virginia before they played at William & Mary Saturday and won, 17-14.

Once again Lafayette has conquered in Virginia.

In 1781, it was Lafayette College's namesake who ran Lord Cornwallis to ground at Yorktown and made possible the great triumph there that assured the United States' victory in the Revolutionary War.

Saturday's 17-14 Leopard win at William & Mary in Williamsburg, just minutes from Yorktown, perhaps won't make such a powerful impact in world history but head coach Frank Tavani made sure his team knew whose footsteps they walked in on the trip south.

"We went to the historic places and we talked about how Lafayette came down here and was overmatched and took it to (the British)," Tavani said.

Only one glitch in Tavani's history lesson -- on Saturday, Lafayette wasn't overmatched in the slightest. Quite the contrary.

"We were (out)-physicaled tonight," said one veteran W&M observer afterwards.

The Leopards dominated each line of scrimmage. That could have been expected on the defensive side, where the senior-dominated Lafayette front four held William & Mary to 84 yards rushing and sacked Tribe quarterbacks twice.

But it was the Leopard offensive line's cohesion and drive that made a dream come true for Tavani and line coach Stan Clayton. That unit, with just two starters back, had not really impressed in preseason and perhaps represented Lafayette's biggest question mark heading into the season.

While there's always room for improvement, the line, which features sophomore Zack Mazur of Freedom at right tackle and junior Brad Bormann of Hunterdon Central at left guard, protected quarterback Andrew Shoop well (just one sack) and allowed the Leopards to run for 114 often-crucial yards.

"That's the result of our defensive line beating up our offensive line all the time," Tavani said. "Going up against our defense every day, getting beaten up on blitzes, that prepared us for tonight."

Another area that Lafayette fans wondered about came at linebacker with three new starters. Would they be ready?

That question was affirmatively answered when junior strongside linebacker Kasheem Hill made a tackle for a loss on the game's first play from scrimmage. The answer stayed yes throughout with junior middle linebacker Mike Boles leading Lafayette in tackles (five) while adding a sack and a tackle for loss.

"Our defensive line did a great job in front of us," Boles said. "(Defensive coordinator John) Loose teaching us to run through the ball and run to the ball. Even though we didn't have a lot of game experience, credit our coaches with putting us in spots where we could come up hitting."

As good as Kirkpatrick, who has "All-League" written all over him, was, he may not have been the best-looking sophomore defender on the field. Coscia looked like a veteran at defensive end and the two Leopard soph safeties, Jared Roberts and Shane Black, each came up with a turnover.

In fact, if neutral fans were told there was an All-American defensive back on the field, they may well have picked Roberts, not Tribe senior cornerback B.W. Webb.It it's too early to tip any Leopards for any postseason honors, it is not too early for Lafayette boosters, students and fans to enjoy a win of very high quality in brutal weather against a team that was one dropped pass away from beating Maryland, which thumped Temple on Saturday.

How good was this win?

Lafayette hadn't beaten a Colonial Athletic Association team anywhere since September 2005 (Richmond, hmm, Virginia again) and hadn't on the road since -- ta-da -- at Richmond in 2004.

The Leopards' last road win over a full-scholarship squad came Oct. 18, 2008, at Liberty -- which is also in Virginia. Indeed the Leopards haven't lost in Virginia since 1991 at Virginia Military Institute.

Future road trips to Richmond, VMI, Hampton, James Madison and back to W&M (where one is set for the near future) could prove profitable for Old Dominion has always been good to Lafayette and rarely has Lafayette been better lately than the Leopards were Saturday.